Set Upon My Cherry Blossom Skies
by WyndShard
Summary: The ex-Gen Masho muses upon his life and his lost love in the aftermath of Arago's defeat. Shounen Ai and a Slight Spoiler Warning.


Disclaimer: I do not own, or claim to own, the Samurai Troopers or the Masho. I do own the ideas and plot of this story.  
  
Slight Spoiler Warning!! Mostly if you have not yet seen the last episodes of Ronin Warriors/Yoroiden Samurai Troopers, so if you don't want to ruin an awesome ending, cease and desist reading until you've seen it all. You have been warned. : ) Everyone else, happy reading and please review!  
  
Author's Notes: ~a flashback, in some instances Shiten's name~ /Arago is speaking - a memory, of course\  
  
Set Upon My Cherry Blossom Skies  
  
Written by: WyndShard  
  
~Shiten.~  
  
It had seemed forever, and it was. Dreams had come and gone, and there were few things that changed little. We were not exceptions.  
  
Four proud young men, seeking only to gain power for ourselves in a time when many died and many suffered.  
  
A time when you were a warrior or a farmer, and the gory wars slid their vile blood coated fingers around you no matter where you ran or hid.  
  
I wonder if I had tried to escape, would things have turned out the way they did?  
  
It is not as though we had known each other before we came into our armors, although some of us had tried to kill each other in the wars in the mortal world, of course. But it is not like any of us really ever truly met.  
  
I cannot regret my decisions, I am a warrior and what is done is done, or so they say.  
  
And if I had not followed this path, I would never have met the one I love.  
  
Maybe then he would be alive.  
  
Maybe we would be better off not knowing...  
  
I was around twenty when I first discovered my armor. My family had fallen upon hard times because of the war, so when I found the maroon orb on one of my patrols through the forest I aspired to sell it the next chance I had. Obviously, that chance never came. That time, so long hidden from the reaches of my memory by my Demon Master, is now so vividly imprinted in my mind that is seems like only a day ago, rather than hundreds of years...  
  
~"Jirougorou-kun! Why have you been out so long?" "Yukiko-chan, where you worried? You knew I was on patrol today!" "Of course I was worried! Your mother is almost having a heart attack! We were utterly afraid something had happened to you!" "And if something did?" I laughed "You know as well as I do the dangers of patrol, but I must protect the village. Besides, it's for pay!" "We are not that hard off that you need to risk." "You know as well as I that, while my father is gaining money, it is hardly enough to pay for mother's medical bills, and we still need to eat." "But isn't there a way to get as much money without such risks.?" "You are so concerned for my welfare?" "Jirougorou! Stop smirking, you look like a demon from the shade." My mother's soft voice called to me from where she was stretched out under the large tree in our front lawn. "Gomen."I turned back to Yukiko. "Besides, I have figured out the problem to all or financial needs." My fingers closed around the precious maroon orb.~  
  
I still laugh at the silly quarrels the four of us had in the beginning, when eternity seemed so far off. Oh, the reckless pranks we would pull upon each other, teaming up and deceiving the rest. I was always told that I was the best trickster, and I suppose I reveled in the attention I got from that, but when I look back I must grimace at what foolish things were taken as compliments in the Dynasty. If only maybe we could have seen the truth sooner..  
  
My whole world rapidly changed. I, the seducer, fell in love  
  
I began to love you, my Shiten.  
  
You were my halo in the dark, the deep voice that spoke of lust and longing and things to come when everyone else was asleep.  
  
You looked almost feline with your forthright eyes; they were frighteningly piercing when you were slighted.  
  
My candle in the dark, as Anubisu would probably say.  
  
He said rather poetic things at times, when he wasn't being his sadistic self. well maybe he always was sadistic in a sense, but I can't recall him starting out that way.  
  
But then, my memory of the past isn't as sharp as it used to be.  
  
~Horses galloped, whinnying and stamping their hooves. Torches glinted in the dark, held by ominous shadows that were deathly silent of their own accord. "Jirougorou-kun." Yukiko grasped my arm. "Hush, Yukiko." My father growled softly. "We are here in the service of the Mighty Lord." One of the soldiers on a horse barked. "We are told to allow this village the chance to lay down its arms and swear allegiance to our Lord or." "Or what?" I interrupted. "Who is this shogun that they believe they can command whosoever is in their way? In the name of our village, we will not allow you to take us over!" My right hand slid to my katana blade. The villagers murmured behind me in assent, there was the sound of steel sliding from multiple sheaths and the whispers of men telling the women to get back inside. Yukiko refused to budge, in turn pulling out the hunting knife her father had given her. I waited calmly, eyeing the samurai on horseback. "Insolent fool!" I waited silently, never breaking gaze, never drawing my sword. "Draw your sword!" I stayed. His katana grazed through the air.~  
  
I am beginning to forget how you looked; it has become a daily ritual to try to conjure you up in my mind now.  
  
Your musky scent is beginning to fade from my mind.  
  
I cannot bring myself to create an illusion of you to remember; it would be too painful and too temporary. gods why?  
  
I never want to forget.  
  
I digress.  
  
The four of us began to fall apart, delusions of grandeur invading and possessing us.  
  
I wonder now what possibly could have made me so blind to have wanted to follow a floating head and want to destroy the world. What possibly could have made us wish so hard to be in favor with that demon?  
  
Maybe it really was lust for power; that we were so deranged that it didn't matter who we hurt, as long as we won out in the end it was peaches and crème.  
  
Or maybe it was to escape certain death at the hands of war and famine that we dared to tread the road we did.  
  
But maybe it was Arago from the beginning; curse him to hell and beyond, who controlled us the moment we received our armors.  
  
I tend to blame myself for not seeing through his traps, because I have only myself and my delusions to blame for my folly. I could have resisted.  
  
But I did not.  
  
~The fighting went on for hours; I smelled blood flowing around me forming a sea. We were not trained for head on combat, but we could not give in. We could not lose. I had dragged Yuikiko back to the house in a rare lull of the fighting, much to her protest. I did not want her hurt, and mother was probably worried sick. The samurai whom I had slighted was still after me, and I could feel his gaze upon my neck every time I fought, but I was too busy fighting his henchmen to go after him personally. Then, finally, I saw the man come for me, but I looked to late. My sword was on the ground and his was flashing towards my neck with such speed I could not scream. My hand reached for my pocket.~  
  
And I, falling into a web of my own deceptions, became the feared phantom of the battlefield. The demonic man who traded his eye for a cursed third eye, with bodies at my bloody feet and people screaming as webs and fire rained from the sky mutilating and twisting them past recognition.  
  
I cannot claim any moral high ground on my colleagues. I wish I could. My tricks ruined many people's lives and took almost as many as well. But although it haunts me, there have been much, much worse tortures devised. Here I go, making excuses. Old habits die hard.  
  
I think you, my Shiten, were the only noble one of our rag tag bunch.  
  
You were the only thing that kept me from spiraling as deep into oblivion as the other two Masho.  
  
My friends.  
  
Our friends.  
  
Anubisu never did tell us why he was as twisted as he was, I can only guess that it was from traumatic childhood abuses that he sustained, during the beginning of a war; that wreaked such havoc on his mind. He had been the son of a prominent samurai who had been defeated by a sadistic, cruel, heartless shogun. Anubisu was captured, and the shogun had taken an interest in him.  
  
Some of this information Anubisu offered to me freely, the rest I pieced together by what I observed.  
  
I think it is quite obvious and utterly horrid when one thinks about what had happened to our Yami, but who will ever know exactly but he? I certainly will not pry into things that have been thrown into the depths of someone's mind, he is happy without them being dredged up. I want him to be happy.  
  
Continuing on. Anubisu only got worse as time went on and flashes of memories that Arago cruelly allowed slip invaded his mind during battle.  
  
He became more brutal than I had imagined possible, even in a true demon.  
  
Gods he did more than kill.  
  
And he laughed. I laughed.  
  
We laughed.  
  
I believe Naaza had it the worst of us all, though. He had always been considered a "freak", (I believe that is the word you mortals use, forgive my lack of "hip" (?) language skills..) being half snake demon certainly does destroy any shred of a good reputation a person can have. In the end, after he got his armor, I think he finally succumbed to what society thought of him which I believe was his greatest error. Naaza lost whatever hold on sanity he possessed at the touch of unlimited power, and he ran with it.  
  
I had found what Anubisu did cruel, but being, well, evil, as I was at the time, I had hardly thought of it.  
  
Naaza was different.  
  
He sickened me to the depths of whatever slivers of my soul that were not sold, and gods know that he repulsed Shiten completely. Naaza devised the most heartless, sickening tortures for his victims. It was possible to hear their agonized screams from the depths of the castle to the highest pinnacle, and, depending on the torture, outside as well. I will not go into the few plots that Naaza had shared with me, I still shudder at the thought that I had ever been cruel enough to laugh along. But even as we three grand Masho (Anubisu even was slightly sickened) were repulsed by the maniac and I is poisons, we were entranced as well. He was very much the charming snake.  
  
Even as I write, Naaza is still recovering from his insane last four hundred years. He is getting well, thank the lord.  
  
I cringe at memories I had once prided myself upon, sabotage and secret alliances that make up so many courts in this land. I knew I had potential to be a great Warlord, all I needed was a chance, and I made my motto: By any means necessary, possible, and available - screw them all over.  
  
Elegant, no?  
  
Heartless, yes.  
  
And now you're gone, my love.  
  
And it is my entire fault again.  
~Light exploded everywhere and in that moment I saw a terrible demon. /Jirougorou.I feel in you a great talent. Join me.\ I felt armor appearing on me, it surprisingly felt light and mobile, and I wondered idly if I was dead. Everything was so slow, even the screams and clash of swords melded together into the sound of that demon's coaxing voice, and I fell into those smoldering eyes. /Join me, your Master and Lord. become great and powerful. immortal in all ways. join me and accept your fate, my Gen Masho Rajura!\ Fury exploded from my fists, raw power burst from me, rending and tearing useless mortal bodies, decimating men and women, children and animals, houses and the earth itself. "TOCHIMOU!" And my spider web was cast. Cast over everything, even myself. And the demon manifested itself before me, I thought of no one that I had loved, now lying in that scorched plain, no one except myself. Only the strong survive.  
  
"How may I please you, my Lord Arago?"~  
  
I damn myself thrice fold into the deepest hell the daemons of darkness can conjure.  
  
Red hair flashing in the candle light, your sweet smile softening your warrior's features, endless nights..  
  
Gone. Because I was too weak to believe, because I had allowed myself to become blind and corrupt. Because of power. Because of my stupidity.  
  
I lost you before I knew it.  
  
No.  
  
I knew I lost you from the moment you refused to go back to the Dynasty. I lost you when I looked into your brave eyes and saw reflected there images of raven colored hair and fiery tiger blue eyes.  
  
I lost you to my own greed and to the one boy who could save us all.  
  
And in that moment, when your eyes pleaded innocence, I wanted nothing more than to see you dead.  
  
I knew how much pain you experienced, upon your return to the castle. I could have cared less. But I now know I felt your pain in the only pure place within my heart during your torture. But even then Arago strengthened his hold upon me, removing any shreds of pity from my conscious mind.  
  
I still have nightmares of it.  
  
I hated you so blindly that when I came face to face with you once more, soon after the Dynasty's first defeat, I challenged you, when you were carrying out Kaosu's will.  
  
We fought, you and I: the one who had betrayed his Master and the one who did not. I fought hard, but my illusions were as though they were toys to you, seeing as you knew me well.  
  
All too well...  
  
You defeated me.  
  
You didn't kill me.  
  
You gave me hope. Hope that I could sway you back; hope that you still loved me. Hope in the dark pits of my stone heart that I could return everything to the way it was. The way I wanted it to be. I never knew how much I needed you until you were gone, but now I had a chance, and I needed to find time! Time was of the essence, I needed to turn you back.  
  
And then.  
  
And then.  
  
You died.  
  
And I have never hated myself more.  
  
I know that nothing will ever atone for my sins, there are too many of them, all of them stamped within my memory.  
  
I'll go on, because I have to.  
  
I will be the trickster, the sarcastic ass, and live my life, or what is left of it, in this strange new world.  
  
I will not give in.  
  
I owe at least that much to you, my Shiten.  
  
Never again will I blind myself with greed.  
  
I will never forgive myself. I will never, ever forget you.  
  
I love you, my perfect, sweet, Shiten.  
  
And now I watch the sun's brilliant rays cast their last dying light upon my horizon, and I must wonder if you were here, would you have seen it the same way? Beauty always seemed your strong point, if not in the words as you always claimed I could manipulate with supple ease, but in the simple things in life.  
  
Is that why you died?  
  
To save Kayura, the last of the Ancient Clan, because of the simple beauty you could find in her heart?  
  
Or because you knew that there was more to life than life, and that only when you accept fate can you truly be free?  
  
Freedom is beautiful.  
  
Even now I feel the last traces of Arago's strings leaving me, and the peace you bring to me in my thoughts is calming.  
  
As the sun sets I feel my strength returning.  
  
I will never forget you, but I know that I will meet you again, when the final curtain falls and the puppeteer bows out...  
  
Do you still remember me?  
~fin~ 


End file.
